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Writer's pictureBobby Vincent

Gonzalo Higuaín: El Pipita

Gonzalo Gerardo Higuaín, or El Pipita, 266 career goals, six clubs, 12 major honours. His first time in the Premier League.

Image via Sky Sports

Higuaín was born on 10 December in 1987 in Brest, France. But with Argentinian family connections - Higuaín eventually chose the South American country.

Starting his professional career at Argentine side River Plate, it was clear from such a young age the knack Higuaín had for finding the back of the net.

13 goals in 35 appearances in his debut season in his professional career is far from a bad return (2005-06).

River Plate boss Daniel Passarella predicted Higuaín to have an "enormous future" and that the striker was "destined for superstardom".

Image via Squawka

Well, superstardom hit the nail on the head, really.

In December 2006, Real Madrid signed Higuaín for €12 million from River Plate.

On the 11 January 2007, Higuaín made his Madrid debut, coming on against Real Betis in the second-round of Copa del Rey.

A rather slowish start for Higuaín raised some questions amongst the Real crowd, but he finally found the net in the Madrid Derby in late February at the Vicente Calderon Stadium.

Some scintillating football from Higuaín in 2011, saw him score three hat-tricks in four games for club and country - arguably his best form at Madrid.

Despite signing a contract until 2016 at the Santiago Bernabeu, Higuaín left the Spanish giants in 2013.

Arsenal were very keen to sign the Argentina striker, but Italian side Napoli secured the signature of the forward.

He made his competitive debut for Napoli in a 3-0 defeat away at Bologna in Serie A, but just a week later, he scored his first goal for the club as they beat Chievo 4-2 away from home.

Higuaín scored his first hat-trick of his Napoli career in a 4-2 win over Lazio in April 2014, at this stage, already a crowd favourite in Naples.

On 14 May 2016, El Pipito scored a hat-trick in Napoli's 4-0 win over Frosinone on the last match of the Serie A season - ensuring the Capocannoniere with 36 goals, equaling Gino Rossetti's record from 1929.

Image via ESPN

Juventus then signed Higuaín for a fee of €90 million from their rivals, being paid in two instalments.

Just a few days after his move to Turin from Naples, Higuaín confirmed it was down to his rather frosty relationship with Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis.

A dream debut followed for El Pipito; scoring the winning goal in their opening match of the season against Fiorentina in a 2-1 home win for the Old Lady.

In October, Higuaín scored the winning goal against his former side Napoli, but did not celebrate out of respect for a place where he was once a legend, and then in April 2017, he scored a brace to help Juve edge Napoli 5-4 on aggregate in the Coppa Italia semi-final second-leg.

Higuaín played a decisive role in Juventus' 4-3 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League, scoring both goals in the first-leg for Juve and scored at Wembley in the second-leg.

Image via beIN Sport

Despite some strong performances from Higuaín, the striker was offloaded on loan to AC Milan in August 2018.

Higuaín didn't feature too much for Milan before making the eventual switch to Chelsea - scoring six times in 15 games for the Italian giants.

Chelsea signed Higuaín on loan from Juventus until the end of the 2018/19 campaign to try and solve their problems going forward.

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